1. Technical Field
This present invention relates generally to mobile services and more specifically to employing a mobile phone for interactions with a health care system.
2. Related Art
In the last few years, Internet technologies have proliferated and millions of people use the Internet for business and for personal activities. In addition, social networks have taken off wherein a number of people can communicate with each other using Internet based systems such as Facebook. However, much of these technologies has not made its way to rural communities across the world, and has had limited impact on their lives.
There are several unmet needs for users who live in small rural communities, and some of these are being met by means of mobile phones. There is need for new solutions that can be managed, with proper control over who can conduct specific activities, especially for healthcare related issues and interactions with doctors and health care providers. Ordinarily, quite a few people make frequent visits to doctors, and let the doctors treat them for various ailments. However, interactions between patients and doctors are limited to visiting a clinic or talking to the doctor over a phone. Frequent visits to a doctor's office or a clinic to obtain information on patient care, medications etc. are not only time consuming but also expensive. However, there are no easy ways to avoid them for elders, senior citizens and those with ailments.
Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous. People in urban areas carry them and so do people living in rural communities. Most people working in remote locations use mobile phones to stay in touch with their family, customers and take phone calls throughout the day. However, the use by ordinary people of their mobile phones to avail of healthcare services is non-existent/rare.
Urban-oriented hospitals and doctor's offices in the developing world, such as India, perceive business prospects in shifting focus to the rural sector. The rural Indian market, for example, a hitherto much neglected one, is now emerging as a large pool of high net worth individuals, traders, entrepreneurs, processing industries, marketing and warehousing agencies, market intermediaries, professionals, educational institutions, plantations and so on provides a wide range of business avenues and market for these institutions to diversify the risks and also seek growth.
Despite decades of effort and experimentation in rural healthcare solutions, the organised healthcare sector is still not able to meet the healthcare gap in the rural sector. It took time for hospitals and doctor's offices to realise the potential of the rural markets. Lack of infrastructure in the rural areas and the focus in the urban sector were some of the reasons. In view of this, there is great need for technology to provide support to the rural populace via an easy mode of access to healthcare services, medical information, and other related facilities.
One of the main problems in rural places (villages, small towns, etc.) in the world is the lack of primary care clinics in proximity to the rural communities. People with meager incomes cannot afford to travel frequently to big cities seeking medical care or information.
Accordingly, the present invention addresses the need for rural people to seek medical information, medical services, share information with other patients, interact with their physicians, etc. despite the lack of traditional healthcare facilities such as clinics and hospitals nearby. The present invention enables easy & secure access to medical information, doctor's, expert opinion, without the need for any additional infrastructure costs to the users and the healthcare organizations.
In view of the foregoing considerations, it is clear that there is a need for an improved system and method for providing interactions between doctors and their patients, between healthcare companies and their customers, between people in rural communities, where there are very few healthcare facilities, etc.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention.